Oil Futures Edge Up Ahead of US Government Inventory Data

Oil futures rose slightly in Asian trading Wednesday, helped by the American Petroleum Institute's reading of a bigger drawdown in weekly U.S. crude inventories than what the government's own reading is projected to show.

--February light, sweet crude on the New York Mercantile Exchange was recently up 0.2% at $57.70 a barrel in the Globex trading session. Brent rose 0.1% to $63.88.

--API said late Tuesday that U.S. oil stockpiles fell 5.2 million barrels last week. That compares with the drop of 3.2 million anticipated in the government's reading. Perhaps more watched will be if another record domestic production figure is released.

Write to Biman Mukherji at biman.mukherji@wsj.com

(END) Dow Jones Newswires

December 19, 2017 23:56 ET (04:56 GMT)